


Unjust Deserters

by primeideal



Category: Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Genre: Book 8: The Path of Daggers, Book 9: Winter's Heart, Gen, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23753323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/pseuds/primeideal
Summary: Evin may not playDaes Dae'mar, but he knows what'sreallygoing on with the M'Hael.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Unjust Deserters

DESERTERS:  
Corlan Dashiva  
Damer Flinn  
Charl Gedwyn  
Eben Hopwil  
Raefar Kisman  
Jahar Narishma  
Manel Rochaid  
Peral Torval

DECEASED:  
Fedwin Morr

It was not the first time Evin had felt like sicking up since he'd come to the Black Tower. The first had been two days in, when he ate raw breakfast and lunch because he hadn't managed the knack of heating it with the Power. The second had been when he'd seen the M'Hael weave Air to display a head on the Traitor's Tree.

But eight deserters, and full Asha'man at that. What could have made _Flinn_ turn traitor? He'd seen forty years of fighting with the Queen's Guards. He'd come to the rescue of the Lord Dragon at Dumai's Wells, and seen how terrible fighting with the Power could be. Someone like Hopwil or Narishma losing the nerve was imaginable, Evin supposed, but he'd thought nothing could have fazed the grandfatherly Andoran. Was he in the pay of one of the nobles seeking a claim to the thrones that lay half-abandoned in the Dragon's empire? Could he have been a Darkfriend all along?

The shock of the deserters almost caused Evin to overlook the last name on the list. Fedwin had died "in service" to the Lord Dragon, but that could mean anything. If he was lucky, he had merely drawn too much of _saidin_ for one man, being consumed in the ecstasy of the One Power. If not, he might have been blasted away by a Black Ajah witch. Or one of those descendants of Artur Hawkwing. Or had the madness stricken him while he was waging war in Altara?

Sometimes the M'Hael spoke as if poisoning wine was beneath him, as if he had killed too many soldiers who knew what they were about to waste time on helpless madmen. But when those madmen could hold _saidin_ , killing them was a mercy for the living even more than the dead.

"Do you think we'll get new leaders?" asked someone behind him. Evin turned to recognize Androl Genhald. "To replace the _Baijan'm'hael_ and the _Tsorovan'm'hael_ , I mean."

"What difference does it make?" Evin said. "M'Hael's not going to appoint me."

Androl shrugged. "If Rochaid and Gedwyn can desert, anyone can desert. They were M'Hael's favorites."

"Maybe the madness took them," offered Evin cautiously. "And--they didn't want anyone to know."

Androl looked up at the list again. "One or two I can understand. But eight at once? Ill luck, even where the Dragon Reborn walks."

"We can ask the Two Rivers boys," Evin muttered. "Though they're probably not old enough to remember his nameday gatherings."

"Vinchova, if you have seen seventeen namedays, I'm the bloody Panarch of Tarabon."

"That's different," said Evin, prickling. "I came because I want to fight, not because I was from the same village as the Lord Dragon."

Androl shook his head. "Perhaps they'll burn out and they can go back to herding sheep."

A terrible thing to wish, even as mercy. "Koval burnt out, and he went and enlisted with Bashere's men."

"Koval knows how to carry a sword."

Mishraile hurriedly approached the list of names and glowered. Evin thought he might have been holding _saidin_ simply to be in the habit, but it was hard to tell. Just as quickly, he returned to his practices.

"Now, that one," said Androl, "the only sword he carries is the M'Hael's sword that is not a sword."

Taim didn't wield--oh, blood and ashes. "No, no, you have it wrong. M'Hael is bedding Logain."

"Logain?" Androl blurted. "M'Hael can't stand the man."

"It's a lovers' feud," Evin said. "You see how much time they spend together, how M'Hael is jealous of the Aes Sedai Logain has bonded. He wants him all for himself, you see. And he gets angry when Logain leaves because he doesn't want him to be in danger."

Androl smirked. "Is this how the madness starts with you?"

"Don't _joke_ about that!"

"Sorry. But--M'Hael doesn't like Logain, Logain would be a powerful Asha'man and False Dragon even without him. He likes people like Rochaid and Gedwyn, who he can _make_ powerful."

"I didn't say he _liked_ him, I said they were sleeping together. You can have one without the other."

"You can have an opinion when you're old enough to shave your beard." Androl turned from Taim's palace and headed for the half-finished wall.

Fedwin could not have been much older than Evin himself, if that. He had fought, maybe killed or gone mad before he died, and had seen little more of life than a village bridegroom. Yet life with _saidin_ in his grasp must have been incontestably superior to life before.

Maybe, Evin thought, Logain and the M'Hael had their own secret bond. That way they wouldn't need to spend time talking with each other where everyone could hear; they would know each other's wounds and triumphs from across the world. Maybe that was what the M'Hael had been teaching Rochaid and go on to teach Mishraile, how to form those intimate connections with whoever they wound up choosing. Perhaps they had a secret way of blunting the pain that Aes Sedai and Warders felt when their partners died?

Well, if they had not discovered it yet, they might soon. With two powerful Asha'man like Logain and the M'Hael working together, anything was possible. Let Androl mock; what did he know. He probably also believed the nonsense like the Lord Dragon having three wives.

**Author's Note:**

>  _"Light, Logain!" the pretty boy exclaimed. "Did you take a_ second _one? The M'Hael won't like that! I don't think he likes us taking any! Maybe it won't matter, though, you two being so close and all."_
> 
> -The Path of Daggers, Chapter 26


End file.
